What Would Spagheti Jesus Do? Regular Season Recap
With the matchups solidified, MD2L Season 7 is coming to it’s conclusion, but who are these teams after a rigorous regular season?
Sorry for the missed weeks every body, life is weird and I am but a stoner with a love for Dota 2, and unfortunately a home in the Midwest. But we’re back for a little post-Thanksgiving regular season wrap up. Week 7 was an exciting week that featured a whole lot of changes up and down on the standings. Pretty Good’s backs were to the wall having to secure a upper bracket only through a 2–0 against a red hot Toad Hunters squad, and sent teams like Night Knight into position to secure double elimination against bitter discord rivals. With the Neckpillows sent to the lower bracket, excuse me I meant with Baboonery Smorgasbord sent to the lower bracket, the tournament is shaping up to be an extremely competitive weekend.
This is one of the most open tournaments MD2L has seen. Last season the two best teams we’re clear all season — no disrespect to Sauce’s team, but Plupo was the only other contender besides Pretty Good — and both teams dominated the bracket until eventually meeting at the Finals again, where Plupo and his squad earned first place. This season, while there maybe a stand out squad in the regular season, no team has been unbeatable.
Plupo
Real Unga-Bunga is getting the first nod because they’re the returning champs and even with a roster switch they’ve played excellent Dota. They make you uncomfortable and force you to over react to beat them back down. They back you into a corner in the draft and make you problem solve your way out. I have the utmost respect for how they play Dota and they are one of the teams best poised to win. Aragorn has played the same way as last season which is objectively great, Plupo has elevated his game, and Tim just keeps doing Tim things but on more and more heroes. Although RuskDaddy has the better record, Plupo is getting the #1 seed in my record book, he has his team prepared and still hungry. Definitely do not let them get riki…
Heroes picked: 34
Heroes Banned Against Them: 43
League of Legends Semi-Pros:
This team is really fucking good. Jackson is scary, Bobby is scary, Crucial is always scary. The Rusk Brothers are playing the best dota they’ve ever played in MD2L history. But I also know that Rusk’s teams have flamed put in the tournament several times with a ton of hype around them and historically speaking #1 seeds have not faired well on tournament day. Now with that being said, this is Rusk’s best roster and the flaws of seasons past don’t present themselves here quite as clearly. This team’s biggest nemesis is Gaben, as they’ve got a good hold on this patch.
Heroes picked: 34
Heroes Banned Against Them: 36
Matty:
I like to imagine the way Matty’s team has played the second half of the season is the way he envisioned it to go from the start. This team is well rounded, Matty has found his bag playing next to Camelfarmer and $avage. With ample space provided by the two, Matty’s been given the opportunity to show off his talents at the P1, in a similar fashion to his performance in MD2L Season 5 while still on P2. This team has good supports who have great warding and aren’t prone to giving away free kills. $savage has been stellar in the 2nd half of the season, playing a Night Stalker that should scare everyone.
Heroes picked: 44
Heroes Banned Against Them: 44
Rhasta La Vista:
Apache and Matty together as a core duo never made a ton of sense to me. It was like putting Sumail and Arteezy together. It can work because high talent, but both need to occupy a large amount of space to reach the critical point they want where they become overwhelming. As a team they couldn’t both reach their potential at the same time, however, with Rhasta La Vista, Apache is thriving. With a P3 that can fill almost any hole in the draft, Apache has been given the freedom to flex to the safe lane, or the offlane and he’s thrived. Mattjoman has been a breakout star of this MD2L season, but his performance dropped off against LoL Semi-Pros, if teams can shut down Mattjoman, it looks like they’ve got a real shot.
Heroes picked: 32
Heroes Banned Against Them: 41
AvgPeen:
This team is way better than pretty much everyone gave them credit for. Their itemization and drafting is top tier. They have grown a lot since the beginning of the season, the biggest difference to me is they are now playing with tempo and reacting with vigor. If they dominate lanes, this team is very strong, if they come out even in lanes, they have shown the potential for timely smokes and ganks. The real make or break for this team will be Amped. Will he be Divine brain Amped? Or will the moment get the best of him and leave him waiting another season for a chance to become an MD2L champion.
Heroes picked: 35
Heroes Banned Against Them: 36
Night Knight:
In my mind, Corey is the new X-Factor of the tournament, he has replaced Staples as the guy who will either propel his team to a top 3 finish or sending them spiraling into a quick lower bracket visit followed by a swift exit from the tournament. Last season Staples was able to silence any critics or doubts as he played some of the best dota of his life to help win a title with Plupo, but can Corey do the same? This team has vets, it’s got salt, and it’s got the power of BSJ, what more could you want?
Heroes picked: 51
Heroes Banned Against Them: 38
Snow:
This team is good. They’ve got solid supports who want to be active and are willing to get down in the dirt in team fights, who also have a good sense on when to place wards for a potential engagement. They play very aggressive as a unit. It’s bold, but they have moments where they play connected like a massive wave crashing into you. Nera is an enigma to me as a player, but i’m excited to watch more of him. This is a team with few weaknesses, but with very little experience. How can they handle the playoffs?
Heroes picked: 37
Heroes Banned Against Them: 42
Villains:
Nearly as big of a 50/50 as a whole team as Corey is as a player. When this team comes to play it’s hard to see them losing. Muggsy can control the game from the 3, pizzajr can control it from 2, and Naratheen can just farm and kill people at will with the space he’s been made. They’ve been inconsistent all season long however as they fail to reach that form on a regular basis. I expected a much more dominant performance through the season from this team because I believe in their roster and how they compliment each other; however, playing against this team and watching this team, it’s clear the have what it takes to win this season, they just need to lock in tournament weekend.
Heroes picked: 39
Heroes Banned Against Them: 39
NO SVEN NO WIN:
I may have caught feels for THE CHAZZ’s team over the last few weeks. They have this tri-core lineup that is so much fun to watch when they’re clicking. They’re highly flexible, and for better or worse, they are unafraid to try things. They’re unpredictable and in a tournament setting, there is real inherent value in that. Phantasmagoria has balled out this season on Mars, with no patch on the horizon before the tournament it will be fascinating to see what other offlaners this team prioritizes.
Heroes picked: 41
Heroes Banned Against Them: 41
SickNasty:
I wrote a whole long thing about how this squad has the strongest support duo in the league and the value and disadvantages that brings, but now Staples-God is back to the mid lane to drag his team to victory. Just kidding, but not really, this team in the form that it took all regular season had potential, but with Twamonkey mid and Staples at the 4, this team was kneecapping itself. Aro has done very well from the P1, but the conflicting tempos of this team held it back. With Staples back to mid, and Twa moving to the safe lane, they should have a mid-game timing as a team that they previously lacked. The thing to look out for though is their offlane. Will the move to 4 on short notice be easy for Aro? And can Aro and TommyRuggs form enough chemistry to keep the offlane as the strongest lane.
Heroes picked: 51
Heroes Banned Against Them: 46
Baboonery Smorgasbord:
This is almost the exact opposite of NO SVEN NO WIN, I’ve fallen off of the Baboonery Smorgasbord hype train the last few weeks. Snow has put on a few great support performances and they’ve been a strong Luna team, but this team thinks it has the versatility of NO SVEN NO WIN, but without the results. Baboonery Smorgasbord has picked 47 different heros this season to NO SVEN NO WIN’s 41. However, many of these one-off picks have just led to brutal losses. This team may be able to win a few upsets, but there’s nothing to lead me to believe that the ceiling for this team is championship level, but boy oh boy would it be interesting to see them go on a run.
Heroes picked: 47
Heroes Banned Against Them: 39
Pretty Good:
We’re pretty good this season. Not pretty great, not pretty bad, just pretty good. If the players on this team play like their normal selves on tournament day, we have a chance against any team in the league. I’d say this has not been an easy season for PG, we made a massive stylistic change in how we approach the game to best fit our roster change, and just as our team was beginning to gel, we lost one of the two best p5’s in the league. PG has been widely inconsistent since the halfway mark of the season and it’s been largely our own doing. I’ve been unable to find a consistent rhythm week to week, and my laning has turned for the worst, luckily I’ve had Epii to cover for so much of my weakness. We’ve made draft mistakes and we’ve made mistakes closing out games we should be winning, but this was the regular season. We won’t be favored in just about any series we play, but we know how to show up on tournament day. Can veteran experience get it done, or will inconsistency come back to bite us in the ass with an early departure?
Heroes picked: 37
Heroes Banned Against Them: 43
Oppai:
So I just don’t really see it with this team. They seem wildly inconsistent to me. That may just be growth throughout the season, and to their absolute credit, they won the games they needed to win, but I just can’t trust this team. However, I seem to be in the minority, as this has easily been the most named dark horse of the tournament.
Heroes picked: 45
Heroes Banned Against Them: 39
5 Imposters:
Some have referred to this team as Pretty Good-lite, and as a three year member of Pretty Good, I have to concur. They play as a unit, they have a pocket in the draft that they like to stick in, Legacy is a strong captain, but still new. This is a crew that could make some noise, but is a season early before they really take off in my eyes.
Heroes picked: 47
Heroes Banned Against Them: 56
Robinhood Day Trading:
As Sauce said himself, “they play around my skill not voice, which has never happened before” and it has shown all season long. Sauce is one of the few reliably consistent captain figures in the MD2L season, but he has yet to put together a squad that actually seems to excel around that. I do not see this team making it past the first round unfortunately.
Heroes picked: 41
Heroes Banned Against Them: 44
4 Guys and a Dog:
DogEater is once again kicking around trying to make some noise in the lower bracket, this feels like a staple of MD2L at this point, I don’t have a lot of faith in this team. Their record has indicated the ceiling of this team.
Heroes picked: 42
Heroes Banned Against Them: 46
Awards
The Ceb Axe MVP
Trident: Jackson League of Legends Semipros 16.88 KDA
Apex: Staples Make 5 Fine Again 2.59 KDA
The MD2L Season 5 Champion Seevil Carry Award
Trident: Jackson League of Legends Semipros 16.88 KDA
Apex: Nera Toad Hunters 4.80 KDA
Zai Offlaner of the Week
Trident: Crucial League of Legends Semipros 5.84 KDA
Apex: $avage Fool Matty 4.94 KDA
Puppey Chen Support of the Season
Trident: RuskDaddy League of Legends Semi-Pros 5.51 KDA
Apex: Staples Make 5 Fine Again 2.63 KDA
EE award for 50/50
Trident: Corey Knight Night
Apex: Pretty Good Pretty Good
PPD award for best Draft
Trident: League of Legends Semi-Pros
Apex: Real Unga-Bunga Hours
Fan Awards
The Ceb Axe MVP
Trident: Jackson
Apex: Camelfarmer
The MD2L Season 5 Champion Seevil Carry Award
Trident: Jackson
Apex: Matty
Crybaby Mid Award
Trident: Bobby
Apex: Camelfarmer
Zai Offlaner of the Week
Trident: Crucial
Apex: Jonny$avage
Puppey Chen Support of the Season
Trident: RuskDaddy
Apex: PeePeePooPoo (Tim)
EE award for 50/50
Trident: Corey
Apex: Twamonkey
PPD award for best Draft
Trident: RuskDaddy
Apex: Plupo